Former president Artur Mas announced his nomination for the leadership shortly after announcing, Saturday, he would resign: ‘I want to make it clear that personally, this is a very painful decision. But I feel calm. My candidate to become the next president is the Mayor of Girona and president of the association of pro-independence town mayors, Carles Puigdemont,’ he said.

Carles Puigdemont will have an explicit mandate to lead Catalonia towards independence from Spain over the next 18 months. His government will have the job of setting up a state, by creating a central bank, tax authority or social security system.

Mr Puigdemont, a former journalist and the current mayor of of Girona, will enjoy a solid parliamentary majority to implement that plan.

Puigdemont was born in Amer (Girona) on December 29th 1962, and he currently lives in Girona with his wife and two children. He started studying for a degree in Catalan philology at the University College of Girona, but never graduated. His professional profile is that of a journalist. He was the editor-in-chief of El Punt, the director of Agència Catalana de Notícies, and the director of the newspaper Catalonia Today, which offers news about Catalonia in English. He is a member of the Catalan journalists’ association, and has published several books, such as Cata… què? Catalunya vista per la premsa internacional [Catalonia as seen by the foreign press] (1994) and several essays about communication and new technologies.

Puigdemont was a founding member of the Nationalist Youth of Catalonia branch in Girona. He is also a member of Convergència Democràtica, and between 2002 and 2004 he was the director of Girona’s Casa de Cultura. Since 2006 he has been a member of the Parliament of Catalonia.

In 2007, Puigdemont ran for the local elections in Girona as CiU’s candidate, but he was not successful and remained in opposition. However in the following local elections (2011), he managed to break Socialists’ Party of Catalonia’s 32-year hegemony in Girona and became Mayor.

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Not disobedience, nor misappropriation of public funds

President Mas is already preparing his declaration in front of the TSJC, scheduled for the 15^th of October, in which he will have to respond to the charges of disobedience that the court attributed to him for organising the 9-N symbolic vote on independence. ‘Legally I didn’t disobey’ emphasised Mas and explained that Spanish Constitutional Court (TC) suspended the consultation decree first and later the participative process. However, when the Generalitat asked the TC which actions ‘were exactly suspended’, the Court didn’t answer. ‘We never got to know what needed to be suspended’, assured Mas.

Regarding the accusation of misappropriation of public funds, Mas pointed out that all the resources used for the consultation ‘still remain in the Generalitat’ and he named the computers that are now used in schools as an example.

The 27-S elections ‘endorsed’ the 9-N consultation

‘The 9-N consultation was an action of standing firm in front of the State. I confess I was a democratic rebel against the decision stopping us from putting the ballot boxes’ he insisted.

According to Mas, this situation is ‘the reaction of an arrogant, furious, clumsy state, whose pride was hurt, which is incapable of dialogue and which will do everything in its hands to get rid of me’. He added that the 27-S elections were the ‘democratic endorsement of the 9-N consultation. People backed and endorsed the 9-N consultation and told the Spanish State to stop being arrogant and vain, because at the end, people voted’ he remarked.

He admitted that in the event of the court suspending him from office, it will have ‘legal consequences’ as long as Catalonia continues to be subject to Spain’s legal system. He insisted that public workers who helped organise the 9-N symbolic vote ‘can’t be forced to act illegally’, ‘no matter how powerful their president is’ he stated, defending their actions.

Rajoy: In Spain there is a ‘separation of powers’

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy considers it ‘false and unfair’ to attribute the TSJC’s summons to the Spanish government. He also denied any political responsibility regarding the date when President Mas will have to present himself to the court; the 15^th of October this year coincides with the 75^th anniversary of Catalan President Lluís Companys’ execution. ‘The Spanish government has nothing to do with these decisions’ assured Rajoy. ‘There is separation of powers’ in Spain, he emphasised. ‘It is a legal decision and in a democracy, legal decisions have to be respected, whether you like it or not’ he concluded.

Rajoy’s statements came after Spanish Minister of Justice Rafael Catalá admitted to knowing the TSJC decision in advance. Catalá assured that the court took into account the 27-S elections and decided to leave the summons pending after the electoral process to avoid ‘interfering’ with it.

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The three politicians have been charged with four counts of gross disobedience, prevarication, embezzlement of public funds, and usurpation of functions for their role in the organizing of the participatory process to decide the political future of Catalonia. The charges brought against Mas, Ortega, and Rigau come two days after parliamentary elections in Catalonia handed a victory to the separatist movement.

The court has set the date for Mas’s testimony for 15 October, a day that marks the 75th anniversary of the execution by firing squad of Catalan president Lluis Companys, during the Spanish Civil War. Rigau’s and Ortega’s testimony will be two days earlier, on October 13. Several witnesses will also be called to the stand.

Before the 9-N vote, the right-wing organization Manos Limpias (Clean Hands), the political party Unión Progreso y Democracia (Unity, Progress, and Democracy), and other groups, filed a lawsuit against Mas, Ortega, and Rigau. Prosecutors brought charges against them a few days later. The Superior Court of Catalonia consolidated the charges into one case.

Several weeks ago, defence attorneys for Mas, Ortega, and Rigau requested that witness testimonies be postponed until after their clients’ testimony had been heard, and for this to be after the elections in order to avoid interfering with the electoral process.

Scheduled testimony

Irene Rigau and Joana Ortega will testify on October 13, at 10 a.m. and 4 p.m., respectively. Mas will testify two days later, on the 15th, at 10 a.m.

The former principal of a secondary school in l’Hospitalet de Llobregat who refused to allow school property to be used as a polling station for the 9-N informal vote will also be called as a witness on 19 October; first scheduled for July, her testimony was postponed to 21 September, and, amid the election campaign, again postponed.

Four other witnesses will also be testifying on 19 October: the administrator of the audiovisual company Focus, which set up the International Press Centre; the director of CIRE, a public company funded by the Catalan government, which  manufactured and distributed ballots, envelopes and ballot boxes; an advisor on public opinion with the Catalan government’s Department of Governance, who administered and maintained the website www.participa2014.cat; and a computer technician ‘tasked with coordinating or managing the services provided by the Centre for Telecommunications and Information Technology’ of the Catalan government.

As for the two witnesses requested by Manos Limpias—which is the private prosecutor—the Superior Court of Catalonia has asked the prosecutor’s office and the defence attorneys to determine their relevancy to the case and whether they should testify. The prospective witnesses are the Catalan government’s secretary general for governance, Francesc Esteve, and the deputy director general of the office of Economic Management, Recruitment and Heritage, Montserrat Aparicio. Likewise, the court has also requested that prosecutors and defence attorneys weigh in on whether to heed the request by the far-right organization for the Civil Guard to search government offices to seize documents on the participatory process.

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Both Raul Romeva, who heads the joint list, and president Artur Mas himself said at a press conference on Monday that Junts pel Sí, as the coalition had previously agreed, will propose that Mas again be named president of the Catalan government.

But during the campaign, CUP insisted it would not back anyone for president who has implemented cutbacks and austerity policies, in a clear reference to Mas.

Mas, however, said that the most salient issue was not who holds the presidency, but ensuring the ability to carry out the independence project: ‘The key element now is not who will be president, but whether, together, 72 MPs can carry the project forward. Everyone counts: Junts pel Sí’s 62 seats and CUP’s 10 seats. Now we must agree on the roadmap.’

Romeva said that the new parliament will implement the proposed roadmap: ‘we have the absolute majority needed to do so.’

‘I don’t know when the Spanish government will respond, but we will see the roadmap through, with all the consequences it entails’, added Romeva.

Asked about the role that Catalunya Sí que es Pot (Podemos’s offshoot in Catalonia), Romeva said that Junts pel Sí is willing to negotiate with everyone: ‘We have to determine what the best option is. We will talk with everyone. We will go forward with a constructive spirit, as people have asked of us.’

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With 73 parliamentary seats, the separatist parties comfortably exceeded the seventy-representative mark, also achieving more than 47% of the vote. Ciutadans, with 25 seats, established itself as the first unionist party. It was followed by the PSC, with 16 seats; the PP, which obtained the worst result in its history in Catalonia (11); Catalunya Sí que es Pot (Podemos’s local brand), with an even worse result (11) than the one obtained by ICV (one of the parties in its coalition) three years ago. Finally, Unió Democràtica de Catalunya lost its parliamentary representation.

Artur Mas, president of the Catalan government and number four on the Junts pel Sí electoral list, called on all parties to accept the separatist victory and promised to manage this outcome ‘with a sense of cohesion and goodwill toward Spain, Europe, and the world’. According to Mas, these election results afford Junts pel Sí the strength and legitimacy ‘to carry forward the process of independence’. ‘We will not let up,’ he said.

Oriol Junqueras, the leader of ERC, one of the parties in the Junts pel Sí coalition, echoed Mas’s view. ‘In the eyes of society and the world, independence has won and now has a more than sufficient majority to carry out this project’.

Unionist parties and the Spanish government, however, have emphasized the fact that Junts pel Sí and CUP have not won a majority of the votes, obtaining 47%. Inés Arrimadas, the Ciutadans candidate, called on Mas to convene a new regional election to compare electoral programs.

Consult the election results here.

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Catalonia’s residents will be able to exercise their right to vote all day, from 9am until 8pm. There will be 2,697 polling stations all along the territory, more than a half, 1,607 in Barcelona’s region.

A total of 5,314,736 people are registered to vote in Catalonia, with 3,972,775 registered in the region of Barcelona, 495,557 in Girona, 299,113 in Lleida and 547,291 in Tarragona, and the number of parliamentarians per province being 85, 17, 15 and 18 respectively. 

A total of 947 towns will participate in the 27-S elections, with 2,681 polling stations being set up throughout Catalonia. 1,593 will be located in the region of Barcelona, 399 in Girona, 318 in Lleida and 371 in Tarragona.            

There are 196,062 registered voters abroad and they have been able to vote either by post before the 22nd of September or through a ballot box at the Consular Registry in their country of residence between the 23rd and 25th of September.

For additional information, voters can visit the Catalan Parliament website where services such as requesting an accompaniment service or adapted transport to the nearest polling station are available.

Coalitions and Unitary lists

The number of lists running for the 27-S Catalan elections is lower than the last time around in 2012; dropping from 79 candidacies to the 40 lists running this year. Moreover, there are many new candidacies that have been designed for the occasion according to the historic nature of the elections that will function as a ‘de facto’ plebiscite on independence. For the first time ever, new coalitions have been made and civil society organisations, such as the grass-roots pro-independence Catalan National Assembly (ANC), the non-profit association promoting Catalan language and culture Òmnium Cultural and the pro-independence association of Spanish speakers, ‘Súmate’, have entered the fray.

One of the unique characteristics of the 27-S elections is that many parties, institutions and organisations have emphasised their plebiscitary nature. To reinforce this point, several of Catalonia’s traditional parties – such as the liberal party CDC, which currently runs the Catalan Government – called for the creation of unitary lists.

‘Junts pel Sí’, the pro-independence unitary list made up by Liberal party Convergència (CDC), left-wing pro-independence Esquerra Republicana (ERC) and the main civic organisations supporting independence, the Catalan National Assembly and Òmnium Cultural, currently heads the polls which would result in the current President of the Generalitat, Artur Mas, being re-elected.

Liberal party Convergència (CDC), left-wing pro-independence Esquerra Republicana (ERC) and the main civic organisations supporting independence, the Catalan National Assembly (ANC) and Òmnium Cultural have come together to form the ‘Junts pel Sí’ (‘Together for Yes’) electoral list headed by Raül Romeva. The aim of the candidacy is to put ideological differences to one side and reduce the elections to the single issue of independence. In the case of a pro-independence victory, a secessionist process would begin, after which constituent elections would be held with the parties standing on their own.

Another example of a joint effort can be seen in ‘Catalunya Sí que es Pot’, (‘Catalonia yes we can’). Alternative left-wing Podemos has joined forces with the Catalan Green Socialist and post-Communist coalition ICV- EUiA to provide a coalition headed by Lluís Rabell. ‘Catalunya Sí que es Pot’ is presenting itself as a left-wing alternative to the ‘Junts pel Sí’ coalition and sees the 27-S elections as a struggle between the established political powers – who they blame for budget cuts – and the working class rather than a referendum on sovereignty. The left-wing coalition favours a referendum on Catalonia’s independence agreed with the Spanish government as well as the Catalan people’s right to decide on their own economic and social model. 

Not just a pro- independence turnout

Turnout will decide the outcome of the elections this Sunday. Political analysts say the independence camp can count on the support of about 1.8m Catalans, most of whom are highly motivated and will vote under almost any circumstances. As such,the turnout of Catalans who are against independence has also been encouraged and is likely to increase with people casting their ballot for Spanish nationalist parties, in particular the ruling conservative People’s Party (PP) and the anti-Catalan nationalist party Ciutadans (C’s).

Despite the independence debate, many citizens will also vote while thinking about the budget cuts and the current economic crisis. Left-wing parties such as coalition ‘Catalunya Sí que es Pot’, made up ofSpanish alternative left party Podemos and Catalan Green Socialist and post-Communist coalition ICV- EUiA, have tried to make the main focus of the elections also about austerity measures and economic growth, although it has clearly been overshadowed by the self-determination process. 

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The text in English simply says that the European Commission cannot give an opinion on questions of the internal organisation of member states. However, the Spanish text includes a paragraph in which there is a pronouncement against the independence of Catalonia. The assistants to the CDC euro deputy Ramon Tremosa, Aleix Sarri and Marga Payola, reported the letter on Twitter, and said that someone had manipulated the official replies of the Commission.

The hypothetical Spanish version says that the Commission ‘will respect the essential functions of the state and especially those intended to guarantee territorial integrity’. And it adds, ‘The determination of the territory of a member state is established only by the national constitutional law, and not by the decision of an autonomic parliament against the constitution of that state.’

Read the English version and the Spanish version:

English:

«EN
E-011776/2015
Answer given by President Juncker
on behalf of the Commission
(21.9.2015)

It is not for the Commission to express a position on questions of internal organisation related to the constitutional arrangements of a particular Member State. 

The Commission would refer the Honourable Member to its answer to written question         P-009058/2014.»

Spanish:

«ES
E-011776/2015
Respuesta del presidente Juncker
en nombre de la Comisión
(21.9.2015)

La Comisión remite a Su Señoría a la respuesta dada a la pregunta escrita P-009058/2014.

No le corresponde a la Comisión manifestar su opinión sobre cuestiones de organización interna relacionadas con las disposiciones constitucionales de un Estado miembro en particular.

La Comisión recuerda en este contexto que, de conformidad con lo dispuesto en el artículo 4, apartado 2, del TUE, la Unión debe respetar la «identidad nacional [de los Estados miembros], inherente a las estructuras fundamentales políticas y constitucionales de éstos, también en lo referente a la autonomía local y regional. Respetará las funciones esenciales del Estado, especialmente las que tienen por objeto garantizar su integridad territorial». La determinación del territorio de un Estado miembro está únicamente establecida por el Derecho constitucional nacional, y no por una decisión de un Parlamento autonómico contraria a la constitución de dicho Estado.»

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As we are informed by the Swiss press, those signing the petition are Mathias Reynard (Socialist Party), Yannick Buttet (PDC, Christian-Democrats), Oskar Freysinger (UDC, right wing) Beat Flach (Liberal Greens) and Balthazar Glättli (Greens). The only party that has not signed in the liberal PLR.

Here is the text of the appeal translated into English:

“Catalonia has a strong and unique identity that is obvious not only in its language and culture, but also in its ancient institutions. The discussion over independence is long-standing in the region and has gained much strength in recent years: in 2012 most of the elected deputies were in favour of the ‘right to decide’ and in 2014 a referendum was held on Catalan independence (the poll with a clear 80% in favour of independence received an immediate legal answer from the Spanish state).

Despite the blocking from Madrid, Catalonia aspires to democratically decide on its political future. On 3 August, the president of Catalonia dissolved the parliament and called plebiscitary elections for 27 September. If the pro-independentist lists win a majority of seats, Catalonia will make a unilateral declaration of independence.

In short, we state that:

The Catalans have repeatedly expressed their will to decide on their political future,

The Catalan executive has tried everything to fulfil the democratic mandate and allow the Catalans to vote within a legal framework,

Spain’s successive vetoes have put an end to the legal forms available to Catalonia,

The Spanish position appears to be contrary to correct international practice in democratic countries,

The Catalan executive has decided to organise plebiscitary elections,

Through its prime minister, Madrid has announced that in the event of victory for the independentists, it would consider the declaration of independence to be illegal.

We therefore ask the Federal Council to answer the following question:

Given Switzerland’s neutrality and democratic tradition, is the Federal Council prepared to offer our country’s “good offices” and intervene between Madrid and Barcelona?”

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Transcribed here, is the conversation that begins with a statement by Rajoy:

—What they are claiming to ask people is to to renounce their status as Spaniards and Europeans. This is nonsense. Why should they lose out on their right to be Spanish and European? This goes against the destiny of time.

—But Spanish nationality will not be lost. In the case of the independence of Catalonia, the Spanish nationality will not be lost by the citizens of Catalonia.

—I don’t know why it won’t be lost. And European nationality neither?

—Because the law says that a citizen born in Spain does not lose their nationality even though he resides in a foreign country, if he has the wish to preserve it.

—Then… the European nationality?

—And he would keep his European nationality because he has Spanish nationality.

—I think that this disquisition is not leading anywhere.

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